We need the beauty of holiness, and the hope given by a long and faithful life shining from commitment to vocation. On 27 May 2018, Brother Christian Moe FSC, who has often spoken at the library in past years and until recently came by bus from Mentone to use the library, celebrated 80 years – an astonishing milestone! – as a De La Salle Brother. And yet, he was not unique. His fellow Brother, Julian Watson FSC, also celebrated his same 80th anniversary on the same day.

Brother Christian is 96. He and Brother Julian are alert, erect, active and still very much engaged in living faithfully the vocation they began – astoundingly - in 1938.
 
There was a joyful community of Brothers, friends and family who celebrated this joyful occasion, with Mass, renewal of vows by the Jubilarians and then by all the Brothers present, and a long and happy luncheon, with speeches in honour of the Jubilarians, and reply by Brother Christian.
 
Clearly the younger – mostly mere septuagenarian – Brothers delighted in the company of their elders, and were very proud of them. The older and younger Brothers were obviously a loving community.

As backdrop to the luncheon, there were dozens of photographs of each of the Brothers, taken over long years and distances. Brother Christian appears vividly as a small boy in the early 1930’s, in habit and beret in France and Rome in the 1960’s, and recently as proud and very worthy recipient of the papal honour, the medal Pro Ecclesia et Pro Pontifice (for Church and Pope). He was rightly celebrated as great scholar and teacher, a leader among the Brothers, and a most eminent educator and planner of education. I was most honoured to be invited by Brother Christian to read at Mass and to sit with him at the luncheon.

Brother Christian is a most vivid example of one who has faithfully nourished Christian faith and culture in his work with and for young people, educated by the De La Salle Brothers. In this way his vocation and the library’s are commensurate. As the beautiful commemorative booklet said, quoting S. John Baptist de la Salle: “To touch the hearts of the young, and to inspire them with the Christian spirit, is the greatest miracle that you can perform.

Ad multos annos!

Anthony Krohn, President